Ever since Blizzard’s deal with NetEase ended, seeing the Californian developer’s games unplayable in most parts of the country, there have been a lot of question marks about the Overwatch League team in China. While the Guangzhou Charge, Hangzhou Spark and Shanghai Dragons all seemed to weather the storm, the Chengdu Hunters were a different story. The team is currently not playing for the 2023 season, and while that was already a very important sign of things to come, another decision has been made that seems to confirm the existence of the Hunters franchise on loan time.
Because Blizzard has now announced that the Hunters team skins are being pulled from Overwatch 2. Of course, anyone who already owns one of these skins will be able to keep them, but new skins will not be available for purchase after 19:00 BST / 20:00 CEST on 6 July.
While nothing has been confirmed yet, it does seem to indicate that the Hunters will lose their franchise in the league soon. Whether this will go to another esports organization/company remains to be seen.